Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Molokh" is a Nazi-themed movie from over 15 years ago that runs for 108 minutes. It is the beginning of a quadrilogy by director Aleksandr Sokurov. Fittingly to the topic, the film has German as its language although it is obvious that all or almost all of the cast were dubbed. Also the fourth film in the quadrilogy ("Faust") is in German. There, however, a big part of the cast are also German actors in contrast to here. I think the guy who dubbed Hitler here could be Monk's German voice, but I am not 100% sure. One of the reasons I watched this film is because of the screenplay award it won in Cannes. Another would be that I read that Mozgovoy's Hitler may be the biggest competition to Ganz in terms of who played the Fuehrer best. Mozgovoy was almost a rookie when this was made in terms of film acting, but an experienced theater actor. No surprise this looks like an intimate play. The Eva Braun actress is a bit more experienced, but not really that much either. The supporting players may have the most experience here. Note that Goebbels (maybe even more bizarre than Hitler here) is played by a woman here. This also adds to the theater atmosphere as do most of the settings.The movie looks much older than it actually is, but this applies to some of Sokurov's works. The film moves very slowly and there are repeatedly section with little to none dialog. In the first 10 minutes, we only watch Eva Braun dance. Later on, we see her practice on the rings like a professional athlete and near the end she is dancing wildly again on a table. Very physical performance from her. Almost ballet-like at times. Hitler joins her on the table at the end and I personally felt occasionally that without the costumes and the famous names and judging from their actions and dialogs, this could have been a random unknown family too instead of the Fuehrer and his wife. Anyway, it left me fairly unimpressed. Maybe it simply was too slow for my taste. This movie never really captured my interest, so i cannot recommend it. Next time "Downfall" again.

Tom Hutton While a good movie certainly could be made about Hitler's time at the Berghof, this one is wide of the mark.None of the characters, except Borman, is convincing. Goebbels, who albeit wittier was nearly as much of a sycophant as Borman, is not so here. Hitler often comes off like a frightened little boy which seems silly and gratuitous. And Hitler didn't have blue eyes, or any other Aryan features particularly; which is one of the great paradoxes about the man. Didn't they have enough money in the budget to get brown contact lenses? But they really get onto tricky ground when they try to explore Hitler's sexuality. He is depicted, of course, as being a misfit who is aroused in an odd way. That's just too easy, and just as poorly thought out as everything else in this movie. Everything I've read about him indicates that he was a crushing bore off stage. My guess is he was just as tedious at bedtime matters.If you want to know what life was like in the Eagle's Nest, read Inside the Third Reich yourself. If you want another fantastic "here's how I think Hitler was a weirdo" story, watch this movie.

RResende I thought the theme of this movie was quite interesting. Still in the end, the result could have been better. What I enjoyed the most in the end was the scenery created around Hitler's "last resort". It really gave the impression of a new Olympus, with human gods around the german Zeus, "die führer"(at least as they saw themselves...). Still, what I found bad in the end was not the soviet approach, as I read in previous comments nor the vision of Hitler as a stupid good fellow(that has to do with the director's origins in the first case and with his vision of history and of the past in the second; if none of these elements were present in the movie than it would be the same as if it had been directed by Bertolucci or Coppolla!...; this gives identity to the creator and to his piece...). What was the true failure in this film, the way I see it, was that besides the director's new characterization of hitler and his hidding place, there were no "juicy" dialogues, no real reflexion about any theme, ideologically speaking or even supported in happenings that might have been occurring in that time. In the end I didn't feel the pulse of the characters, it's like if they were dead, with no capacity to rule the world as the gods they pretended to be... Still I had the sublime impression that they were like resting as if they were not responsable for what was going on in the world, in a lunatic attitude that I believe was close to the reality... 7/10

Juan el Frijol being very impressed by the poetic imagery in sokurov's 'mother and son' i was very interested about moloch and especially when such a controversial theme as the inner live of hitler and his incrowd is involved. Alas this was a pure disappointment; depicting hitler as a raving lunatic and a village idiot in an overtly absurdist way is almost as insulting to the course of history as portraying hitler as a 'good guy'. Foggy decors, 'ballet-movie' sequences and pseudo-artistic black white scores only help to establish an artsy fartsy feel about this whole project. Concluding very interesting idea to begin with but an utterly failed and boring production.